The Shadow Of Gotham
by The Distorted Shadow
Summary: Rewrite of Three Years: The Shadow Of Gotham: After the 4th shinobi war, Naruto found out one simple fact... peace is boring for an action junkie like himself, so when he finds a way to get more action in his life, he jumps at the opportunity, leaving Konoha and the Elemental nation behind and finding himself in a city filled with people that made Orochimaru look sane.


Okay, I know this will probably annoy you all but I decided to rewrite The Shadow Of Gotham.

Honestly when I reread it, I was struck by how... poorly written it was and it made me cringe (that is one of the reasons I haven't updated it in so long).

Anyway, that's all I'm going to say for now so let's just get on with the show.

* * *

Naruto couldn't stop himself from letting out a sigh of frustration as he sat in his apartment. It had been so long since he had had a good fight that he was almost beginning to regret the fact that the fourth shinobi war had ended.

That had been three years ago.

In that time he had been left in a world that had been torn asunder by the Jūbi, Madara and Obito and for the first few months everything was in chaos.

It wasn't because of the shinobi villages going to war again, it had simply been because of the five Kages working towards putting everything back together again.

The ninja worked tirelessly to try and undo the destruction caused by the incredibly powerful clashes while the Kages met with the daimyos to try and work out a new shinobi system that didn't pit them against each other.

It had taken a long time and the hard work of the brightest minds in the elemental nations for such a system to be created and since then, everything had changed completely.

No longer was the threat of constant war being hung over the ninjas heads as they tried to get on with their lives, instead the missions had changed dramatically, no longer would a village accept a mission without verifying it with the ambassadors from the other villages to ensure that no ninja fought over such trivial matters.

And that fact had started the end of the shinobi era.

Naruto could tell, even after such a short length of time he could tell that now that the ninja were no longer in conflict, there was no longer the same need for them. Soon the purpose of ninja would cease to exist and they would stop training them, the ninja would die out and the feudal lords would regain the military power they had lost with the advent of ninja.

And that fact stung the blond man whenever he thought about it

For so long he had wanted peace while at the same time wanting to be the Hokage, a ninja. It was only now that peace existed that he understood just how much of a naïve child he had been.

Without war there was no need for ninja and while ninja may still exist right now, it was clear that such a specialised existence couldn't keep existing without war. There was simply too little conflict that required the presence of shinobi now.

And that rendered his constant training and attempts at mastering the different shinobi disciplines inconsequential. Sure he was now easily one of Konoha's foremost ninjutsu users, mastering his wind affinity to the degree that using jutsu to use it actually made the process of using an attack more complicated, take longer and weaken the end result.

And that wasn't even going into his forays into other elements. He had found himself managing to learn the nature transformation for both water and earth chakra, which given Kakashi's assistance allowed him to learn several rather useful techniques.

Of course he wasn't as good with those two elements as he was with wind, honestly he could only be compared to the Nidaime Hokage when it came down to his mastery of the element… if he hadn't mastered it to a level that was beyond Tobirama's mastery of suiton techniques.

Of course he wouldn't say he was stronger than the man, having witnessed him in battle alongside Hashirama and Madara he could honestly say that those three were not simply powerful… they were monstrously powerful.

Sure he had grown to be monstrously powerful and even possessed a back up in the way of Kurama's chakra but that didn't change the fact they those three had also had experience, enough experience to fight the jinchūriki of the strongest bijū head on without too much hesitation.

Sure they had possessed immortal bodies at the time but after a couple of 'deaths' that could've easily been bunshin had they been more cautious, they had managed to get a measure on the strength of the foe and those 'deaths' had stopped coming despite the sheer amount of power Obito had possessed in that state.

So Naruto wouldn't say he could defeat any of them even if he did have the strength and skill to do so. He would however admit that he was easily the strongest shinobi alive.

Sure his genjutsu may have sucked but at least he had managed to learn the absolute basics of the art, enough that he could probably be considered as being a C rank in that area.

Sure it wasn't like his S rank in pretty much everything else but it was a lot better than he had been three years ago. Back then he hadn't even been capable of using even the most basic genjutsu and was also pretty poor at telling when he was caught in one unless it was obvious.

But all of that was pointless now. He had no one to challenge him and that thought made him realise just how devoted to the ninja lifestyle he had been.

And so here he was, in his apartment with a frown on his face as he looked at his collection of novels that had occupied his time since the end of the war.

Yes, Uzumaki Naruto, the hyperactive, knucklehead ninja had taken up reading.

He had just been curious at the start, wondering how much of his dislike for reading had simply been because he couldn't sit still for long periods of time and how much was because he didn't like the act of reading.

He had quickly come to the conclusion that it had simply been his inability to sit down that had led to him hating books. Now however he was an expert at not doing anything, it was a requirement for the Gama Sennin Mōdo after all.

But even that didn't change one simple fact. He needed something to do with himself. It was no good being as powerful as he was when there was no one to match him.

He had initially hoped that Sasuke would grow as quickly as he had, however that hope was dashed when he realised that the young Uchiha had started to focus on his other goal in life outside of revenge… resurrecting his clan.

So now his raven haired rival was more concerned with chasing girls than training and that had left the whiskered ninja with no one to face off against.

He had contemplated learning Edo Tensei and resurrecting Hashirama for a fight but there was a problem with that idea… namely that he would have to get a human sacrifice if he wanted to do that and that was something he wasn't prepared to do.

And so he had lost his reason for living. With the shinobi age ending, there would be no need for a Hokage, there would be no one to give him a reason to fight either and all in all, he didn't know what to do with himself.

The only girl in Konoha he really cared about was Sakura and she had ended up joining Sasuke's Harem… exactly how the guy managed to get several girls was anyone's guess but it had happened and outside of Sakura, the only other girl that didn't want to be with him because he was a war hero was Hinata… and well, even now he barely knew her, let alone loved her.

Sure there was nothing wrong with her, it was simply that he couldn't actually manage to hold a proper conversation with her courtesy of her ridiculous shyness.

Honestly, if they weren't participating in a life and death situation then she simply couldn't hold a conversation with the blond and that wasn't a particularly good way to go about with a relationship.

He let out another sigh as he tried to distract himself from everything like that. He had practically become a hermit after the fourth war, rarely interacting with others, in the beginning it had been because everyone had been so busy rebuilding that there simply wasn't any time to do anything normal but as time passed, he found himself growing distant.

Other ninja were simply so far below him in terms of ability, even the five Kages combined couldn't match him anymore and that made sparring with them pointless. Combine that with the fact that for the most part, sparring was all a ninja could really do outside of odd jobs and drinking and there wasn't much for anyone to do.

But at least most other ninja were capable of getting some good exercise by sparring with each other, Naruto couldn't even manage that anymore.

So all he did was keep his body in top form, read and train in new skills, something which didn't really take that long courtesy of his usage of Kage Bunshin.

And that wasn't enough for him.

Take right now, he no longer had any books left to read and his bunshin were working on something he couldn't really risk attempting in person until they got it down… Jikūkan ninjutsu.

Sure it was possible to come up with a jutsu without using a bunshin but the risks were great, especially when trying to do something completely unrelated to anything else that exists.

It was a bit like how creating the Hiraishin was actually quite easy when you understood how the summoning jutsu worked and how the seal created by the technique acts to pull something from another point in space.

That was not what Naruto was trying to do. He was not trying to improve on a technique but rather, figure out a way to push the branch of jutsu to new levels. He wanted to learn how to create pocket dimensions without the use of seals, how to split space so that an object can be cut without being cut and even manipulate time itself.

That was his goal in studying that art.

Of course, attempting to do things like that was incredibly difficult and dangerous, which is exactly why he had his kage bunshin work on it instead of doing it himself, he had already received memories of his bunshin accidentally splitting themselves in two after all.

**"You know, it is quite funny to see you moping around like this because there aren't any wars to fight in,"** the giant fox contained within his head said with obvious humour in his tone.

"Oh give it a rest Kurama, you know my problem isn't peace," the whiskered man responded despondently.

**"Yeah, yeah, you just want a challenge for a change right?"** the chakra construct admitted calmly, earning a grunt of confirmation from the ninja, **"so why don't you just go out and start sightseeing? There are plenty of sights to choose from now that the damage of the war has been repaired."**

"Because I've already seen most of those sights on my training trip with Ero-sennin," Naruto admitted with a sigh. He really missed that old pervert, he was certain that man would've loved to see the world the way it is now.

**"Yeah, that's true,"** and with that the blonds best friend for the past three years went silent once again.

Several minutes later, the jinchūriki was still trying to decide what to do when his mind was assaulted by memories of a bunshin that rendered him speechless, then it was followed by another and another and with each bunshin that experienced the same thing, Naruto's excitement grew as new possibilities assaulted his mind.

He found himself smiling as he made up his mind and it was without hesitation that he grabbed the sage coat that Shima had made him a few years ago and left his apartment with only one thing in mind.

Informing the Hokage of his departure.

XXX XXX XXX

Tsunade let out a sigh as she signed more paperwork. Ever since the end of the fourth shinobi war, her workload had increased substantially.

Now not only did she have to deal with the usual paperwork but now there was also the alliance paperwork that plagued her every day. Despite the change in the system, there were still political troubles, though those were mainly based around a matter of 'which side should shinobi as a whole represent?' as opposed to 'what is the state of our affairs with other countries?'

It was also painfully clear to everyone that the age of shinobi was coming to an end. Even Naruto seemed to realise that the shinobi existed for conflict and without conflict, there couldn't be shinobi.

And it was clear that that revelation had hit the boy hard. He was no longer the happy go lucky punk she knew when she first met him, he had grown so much calmer, so much more distant and most of all, so much more disillusioned.

The leaders of the great nation were now growing wary of him. They had all accepted him as probably the most important participant in the fourth shinobi war but they all realised how much he had changed since then and many were wondering if he would singlehandedly start a new war just to get some excitement.

That thought was actually rather threatening for them all, the five Kages had actually fought him together in an all out spar and he had dealt with them in a manner that almost reminded them of Madara back when he mockingly deconstructed them.

Of course Naruto hadn't been condescending in his actions like Madara had been.

Of course there were people putting forward proposals for some form of contingency plan in case he ever chose to go rogue, mainly putting some form of seal that could be used to kill him should he go astray on him to ensure no fight with him would ever have to happen.

Tsunade was fully against that proposal, even if she understood exactly where they were coming from.

"Hey Baa-chan, how you doing?" came a familiar voice from behind her, making her turn to see the blond himself standing behind her with a smile on his face. Honestly, it was annoying that he could get the drop on her nowadays but she pushed that thought out of her head, he wasn't her enemy and beyond that, he was the strongest ninja since the days of her grandfather so it was to be expected.

That didn't stop her from throwing a paper weight at his head.

And that didn't stop him from catching it with minimal effort.

Damn his training with Gai and Lee.

"I was doing fine until someone decided to interrupt my day," she stated with a twitch in her eyebrows at the fact the blond was still smiling at her, "so what can I do for you today gaki?"

"Accept my resignation," the jinchūriki said it with such a calm and collected manner that it took a few seconds for the older blond to process exactly what he had said before she went pale at the implications.

"Naruto, please tell me you aren't planning on going rogue," the Godaime Hokage asked seriously, hoping against hope that he wasn't doing what she thought he was doing.

"It's nothing like that baa-chan," he informed her with a sad smile, "I know you're being pressured into doing something about me, I'm simply too powerful for the shinobi alliance to risk facing, especially after the casualties of the fourth shinobi war."

Tsunade felt herself sink lower at his statement. It reminded her that for all his lack of social interaction, he was still an incredibly skilled ninja capable of collecting information that shouldn't be accessible.

"There's nothing here for me now except boredom, ramen and potential betrayal, so I want to leave, not just Konoha but this entire world," the blue eyed man told her calmly, earning wide eyes from the Hokage.

"What do you mean, leave this world?" she asked him as her heart sped up at the thought that popped into her head… she didn't want to see him kill himself at such a young age.

"I had some bunshin working on Jikūkan jutsu and… well, one of them had a breakthrough," the admitted with a grin, "I literally found another world."

Tsunades mind froze. Naruto had found another world and wanted to go there. It was such a foreign concept to her mind that she could only stare at him in disbelief as he look at her with a soft smile.

"So, please accept my resignation and I'll leave this world for good," and with that, everything changed within the Godaime's mind. Naruto wasn't going to kill himself, he was essentially going to leave the continent and never come back, he was going to go to another world and create problems for whoever lived there...

Tsunade couldn't stop her lips from twitching into a small smile as she thought of inflicting the blond on a new world, hopefully he would be capable of bringing peace to that world and maybe, maybe he would just keep doing that for however long was needed.

"Alright, I shall accept your resignation, however I'm certain that there are many that would love to wish you luck on your newest adventure," she told him with a light hearted smile as she stood up and gave the younger blond a firm hug, "just do me a favour and don't' go dying in this new world okay?"

"I promise… and Uzumaki Naruto never breaks his promises."

XXX XXX XXX

Well, this was unexpected.

It had been one week since he had handed in his resignation to Tsunade and it was finally time for him to leave. He had been driving himself crazy by not going off as soon as possible however he had decided to stay back to give the people that wanted to see him off a chance to say their farewells.

And boy was he surprised by the sheer number of ninja that turned out to see him off.

Hell, he was certain that nearly every ninja in the world had gathered to see him off, he knew for a fact that since the five Kages had gathered again it was highly likely that the entire villages followed behind.

From an observers stand point it would've probably looked like an invasion force, however there was no hostility on any sides and most of the ninja were cheering his name as he waited for everyone with anything to say to come forward.

Thinking back on things… he had probably saved the lives of everyone here at some point or another during the fourth shinobi war so it wasn't really that big a surprise that they would all be gathered here to see him off.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye huh?" he said with a soft smile, sure he would probably miss some of the people here but the fact remained that he was a man of action and there simply wasn't any action anymore.

"Yeah, I guess it is gaki," the busty blond Hokage admitted with a strong tone. She had already come to accept his departure as another farewell but at least this time, it wasn't a bitter one.

"Naruto," a certain raven haired Uchiha shouted out to him, earning several glares from most of the people present, even with his more recent actions during and after the fourth shinobi war, there was still plenty of animosity directed towards him, there were even members of his 'harem' that didn't trust him, "give 'em hell."

Naruto's face was immediately distorted into a feral grin as his old teammate, the only person who he could ever synchronize his skills with perfectly, gave his encouragement for this venture.

And as if it was the straw that burst the camel's back, everyone started giving their farewells.

It was such a nice feeling to be hailed as a hero, to be admired by so many people and to be so smothered with positive attention that he couldn't move. It was the proof that he had managed to overcome the hatred that had plagued the world and helped build a stronger, better society… even if the individuals were weaker, he was certain that the people would be better off without ninja starting wars everywhere.

Hours passed as everyone gave their farewells, from Shikamaru's 'go and be troublesome elsewhere for a change' to Hinata's stuttered farewell as she cried over being unable to truly start a relationship with him.

Eventually, everyone had said their piece and it was without hesitation or regret, that Uzumaki Naruto left the world of shinobi.

* * *

I know this must suck for you all, I haven't even shown Gotham yet but then again, this is just the prologue and the real story starts when I do a rewrite of chapter two.

Anyway, I hope you at least enjoyed this version more than the original since it is a bit more detailed and hopefully it is written better.

I would also like to point you all towards a new poll I have put up on my profile page as well as a forum I have started (the link is on my profile page) where you can ask any questions you may have.

And I'll just leave it at that for now.

Shadow out!


End file.
